Luminous tube sign



Dec. 14, 1943. 1-1. HOTCHNER I LUMINOUS TUBE SIGN Filed Aug. 22, 1939 E. mm: m Ww km .7 2M 3. m M

Patented Dec. 14, 1943 LUMINOUS TUBE SIGN Harold Hotchner, San Francisco, and Herbert E.

Metcalf, Walnut Creek, Calif.; said Metcalf assignor to said Hotchner Original application March 18, 1937, Serial No. 131,566. Divided and this application August 22, 1939, Serial No. 291,352

3 Claims.

Our invention relates to luminous tube signs, and more particularly to that type of sign wherein a luminous tube is placed in a slot in a character raised from the face of the sign or background area.

of September 12, 1939.

each other.

as a sign.

contour of the character.

set of supports.

character.

the slot so that it may be spaced properly from the edges thereof. In this regard it is obvious that glass tubing cannot be bent or formed into characters with the precision that characterizes metal working, and as a consequence we have The present invention is an improvement on found that in order to properly position a tube the Hotchner Patent No. 2,072,986, issued March in a slotted character, the slot should .be made 9, 1937, entitled Luminous tube sign, and is a greater in width than the diameter of the tub-'- division of our application, Serial No. 131,566, ing. We have also found, however, that even filed March 18, 1937, now Patent No. 2,172,384 when such a provision is made, it is highly advantageous to provide adjustable means whereby The main object of our invention is to provide the tubing may be adjusted relative to the edges means for supporting the letter and the tube of the slot both as to heighth from the sign face. from a sign face or background area in such a and laterally. manner that they may be adjusted relative to The details of our invention may be more fully understood by reference to the preferred em- Among other objects of our invention are: To bzodiment shown in the drawing. provide a means for adjustably supporting a Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a slotted, raised luminous tube in a slot; to provide a means for character, in this case the letter I, there being supporting a luminous tube in adjustable relaa luminous tube positioned in the slot. tion to the edges of a slot in a character raised Fig. 2 is a cross sectional View taken as indifrcm a sign face or background area; and to procated by the line 22 in Fig. 1. vide a simple and easily adjustable combination Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view showing another of raised character and luminous tube to be used means for adjustably supporting the letter and tube. Other objects of our invention will be appar- Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view showing still ent or will be specifically pointed out in the deanother method of supporting the combination. scription forming a part of this specification, but Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing one way we do not limit ourselves to the embodiment of in which the tube may be supported directly from the invention herein described, as various forms 0 the character. may be adopted within the scope of the claims. Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view showing another In the patent referred to directly above, Hotchway of supporting the tube from the character. ner shows a character raised from the sign face Fig. 7 is a plan view of a portion of the charand supported in spaced relationship therefrom, acter and tube combination shown in Fig. 6. the character having a slot therein following the 5 Referring directly to Figs. 1 and 2', a sign face In the slot, which is I is provided with a raised character 2, in this wider than the tube, is located a luminous tube, case the letter I, having a letter face 3, a downmaintained in position by a separate set of supwardly extending edge flange 4, and a central ports extending from the sign face. Thus slot 5. In the slot 5 is positioned a luminous Hotchner uses two separate and distinct sets of tube 6. supports, one set for the character and one set The character is supported directly from the for the tube. Because of these separate supports sign face or background area I by a plurality either the tube or the character may be removed of upright standards I fastened to the sign face from the sign face without disturbing the posiat one end and to the character at the other tioning of the other member of the combination. end, the character being removable from the The present invention, broadly, deals with a standards by the removal of character screws 8. tube and character combination using a single Thus the position of the character from the sign In certain of the embodiments face is fixed with relation to the sign face, but of the invention either the character or the tube the character as a whole is removable. is supported directly from the sign face, where- In this regard we wish to point out that the as the other member of the combination may be exact sectional shape of the character is no part supported, not from the sign face directly, but of the present invention, and the section of the through the medium of the supports already procharacter face 3 may be of any contour desired, vided. Or, in another embodiment of the invenor even a perfectly flat sheet of metal or other tion, the character may be supported directly material may be used to make up the character. from the sign face and the tube supported in the We do, however, desire that there be a space beslot by supports extending from the letter or tween the edges of the character and the sign face in order that light from the tube may be The main feature common to both of these projected against the background of the sign face embodiments is that the tube may be adjusted in and be reflected out from around the edges of of Hotchner.

In the particular embodiment shown in Figs.

1 and 2, the tube itself is supported on a tube bracket l having bearings ll sliding on standards I, and maintained in position by set screws I2. Mounted on bracket H1 is a support base I3 carrying an insulating tube support l4, preferably of glass, and formed to receive the tube as is well known in the art. The tube is fastened to the support by tie wire I 5, Thus it will be seen that the tube 6 is adjustable with relation to the edges of the slot through the medium of the tube support, and that the tube is supported, not directly from the sign face, but from the upright standards 7.

Fig. 3 shows a slight modification of the support, wherein a U-shaped support bracket I6 is fastened rigidly to the sign face I and this U- shaped support bracket supports both the tube and the character. Here the character is supported from the bracket by the use of sleeves l1 and long bolts l8 passing through the sleeves to engage the bracket I6. The vertical adjustment here is made by varying the length of the sleeves 11, whereas a lateral adjustment of the tube i6 may be changed by varying the position of the mounting of the insulating support id on the bracket l6 through the medium of free holes 19 in the latter bracket.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 4, a single upright standard I is provided at each support point and the tube 6 is supported directly from the top of this upright standard I, the insulating support l4 engaging the top of this standard.

The character is supported directly by a U- shaped character bracket 20, this bracket bearing on the upright standard 1 and vertically movable thereon and fixed in position by set screw 2!. Here n0 lateral adjustment has been shown, but this may be easily provided by utilizing a slot or a free hole for the head of character screws 8.

Thus, the embodiments shown in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive show branched supports, certain branches comprising the tube, other branches supporting the character.

In the embodiment shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, only character supports 1 are utilized, and the tube 6 is supported directly from the character but in such a manner that its position may be varied laterally with respect to the edges of the slot 5.

In Fig. 5 the insulating supports M are positioned on the character face 3 opposite each other, and extend toward the tube, They are maintained on the character face by means of insulator brackets 22, these insulator brackets having a surface bearing slightly smaller than the insulators themselves so that when they are tightened against the character face they tightly engage the insulating supports. As the insulators are usually made of glass, a small piece of leather or other soft material may be placed between the bracket and the glass to prevent breakage.

In Figs. 6 and 7 we have shown another embodiment wherein the combination is supported only on standards I, but in this case the insulating tube supports I 4 are placed beneath the character face where they cannot be seen, and the support brackets l3, attached to the tube insulators, are held to the character by bracket bolts 24 extending through the character face through slots 25, whereby the insulators may be moved toward each other and the whole tube moved laterally with relation to the character edges and then the bracket bolts tightened to fix the tube in the position desired.

Thus it will be seen that we have provided means for supporting the character and means for supporting the tubing in such a manner that the tubing may be adjusted in the slot, either laterally, vertically, or both, thus assuring that even though the tube does not exactly follow the contour of the edges of the slot, it can be positioned in the most advantageous position to give the results desired.

Furthermore, we prefer, as outlined in the above-mentioned. patent to Hotchner, to imbed the terminals of the terminal electrodes of the tube below the sign face in an insulating receptacle 38, shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. If, then, the electrode ends of the tube are made sufficiently small in diameter, to be less than the width of the slot, it is obvious that the tube may be removed from the character without disturbing the latter, or the character may be removed from the sign without disturbing the tube, in the embodiments shown in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, whereas in the embodiment illustrated by Figs. 5, 6 and 7 the tube and character may be removed as a unit or the tube removed, leaving the character in place. As it is the tube that requires the more frequent service, the removal in all embodiments of the tube alone is desirable from a service point of view.

We claim:

1. In combination, a background area, a slotted character, means for removably supporting said character over said area and spaced therefrom, a luminous tube positioned to direct light through said slot onto said area, and formed to follow the slot without touching the slot defining edges, and alined insulating supports extending from opposed spaced points along the slot defining edges only and engagin said tube to form the sole support of said tube from said slotted character, whereby said tube and character can be removed from said area as a unit.

2. In combination, a background area, a slotted character, means for removably supporting said character over said area and spaced therefrom, a luminous tube positioned to direct light through said slot onto said area, and formed to follow the slot without touching the slot defining edges, and insulating supports for said luminous tube extending from opposed spaced points along the slot defining edges only, said supports extending along a common line substantially perpendicular to the edge line at point of departure therefrom, whereby said tube and character can be removed from said area as a unit.

3. In combination, a background area, a slotted character, means for removably supporting said character over said area and spaced therefrom, a luminous tube positioned to direct light through said slot onto said area, and formed to follow the slot without touching the slot defining edges, and spaced transparent insulating and alined supports for said luminous tube extending from the opposite slot defining edges only and engaging the sides of said tube for positioning said tube with relation to the slot defining edges, whereby said tube and character can be removed from said area as a unit.

HAROLD HOTCHNER HERBERT E. METCALF. 

